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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25539652">Monochrome Kiss</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpicyReyes/pseuds/SpicyReyes'>SpicyReyes</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Canonverse AU, Creature Eren Yeager, Demon Eren Yeager, Demonic Lore Worldbuilding, M/M, as the fic is insp by a black butler insp fic, he's a fuckin demon lmao, its got Layers, older eren?? technically???, title is a black butler reference, vicious demonic children</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-07-27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-03-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 09:29:11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Explicit</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>10,538</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25539652</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpicyReyes/pseuds/SpicyReyes</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>The demon looked out, into the evening, where titans were slowly starting to still for the night. “Leviathan’s mark is on them, too,” it said. “I can’t fix them.” He looked back, that inexplicable glint still sharp. “But I can kill them.” </p><p>“Then do it,” Grisha said. “Kill them all.”</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Levi/Eren Yeager, others</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>34</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>325</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Top 10%</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">


        <li>
            Inspired by

            <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/8650402">Blood Rites</a> by <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/voxofthevoid/pseuds/voxofthevoid">voxofthevoid</a>.
        </li>

    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>i like creature!eren as a concept okay<br/>i found a discontinued demon!eren fic and ran with the concept<br/>warning for uhhhhh demons being demonic, attack on titan being bloody and violent, a slightly MORE fucked up version of the canon murderous children moment, and not quite enough fixing to be considered a fix-it</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“And it will do anything I ask?”</p><p>Kruger nodded. He gestured to the ground below them, where new titans roamed. “Tell it to kill one, and it will. Tell it to kill them <em> all…” </em>He shook his head. “Normally, you’d have to be specific - demons will trick you out of your end of the deal if you let them. Not the one we’re after, though.” </p><p>“What demon are we after?” Grisha asked. “You had a specific one in mind?” </p><p>“You always should,” Kruger said. He stepped to the edge of the wall, where they’d secured the rope. “We have to get down, if we’re going to summon it. You have to bury the tribute in the dirt to make the deal.”</p><p>Anxiously, Grisha followed him down, but the titans didn’t seem too interested in them now that night had fallen, too tired to notice they’d come within reach. The second he touched down, Kruger stepped away, crouching to the dirt, starting to scrape open a hole with his hands. </p><p>“What’s in the box?” Grisha asked, looking at the ‘tribute’ - to his eyes, nothing but a simple, unmarked wooden box.</p><p>“Something dead,” Kruger said, flatly. “Wrapped in silk, tucked in with something of mine. Three sacrifices - blood, value, and sentiment.” </p><p>Kruger did not elaborate further on the things he’d picked, and Grisha took that as cue not to ask. </p><p>He watched the man lower the box into the hole once it was big enough, take a deep breath, and push the dirt back over the top, smoothing it out over the spot.</p><p>“What now?” Grisha asked. </p><p>“Aamon.”</p><p>Grisha looked to Kruger in confusion, but he said nothing else, eyes fixed on the burial spot of the box. </p><p>Then, in front of their eyes, the dirt began to emit a soft steam.</p><p>Kruger got to his feet immediately, backing up a few steps, catching Grisha’s elbow to drag him clear as well. </p><p>The steam rose a few inches, then condensed into vine-like tendrils, curling around each other as they escaped into the night air. Those tendrils thickened, and separated further, starting to form a solid shape in the air - a distinct, not-quite-human silhouette. </p><p>The steam grew thicker, denser, from mist to fog to something solid. Color began to bleed into the form of it, and within moments, a pair of jet black eyes peered out at them from a raven’s head, on a man’s shoulders, but holding a wolf’s teeth. </p><p>Grisha stared, heart in his throat. “This is…”</p><p>The demon looked between them, before settling on Kruger. “You’re Leviathan-marked,” it said, in a silky voice, disjointed for having come from such a vicious appearance. “No demon can remove it. A deal will not save your life.” </p><p>“I didn’t summon you to save me,” Kruger said. His voice shook, and Grisha realized that, his theoretical knowledge aside, Kruger might not have fully expected this to work. “I summoned you for him.”</p><p>The demon’s eyes shifted to Grisha. The stare pierced him and set his heart racing, pounding in his ears, every instinct screaming at him to run. </p><p>The raven head tipped, and the canine teeth seemed to grin, though the hooked bird’s mouth did not move. </p><p>“I...would bind you,” Grisha said, forcing the words past his tight throat. “The people within the walls, behind us - they’re trapped, and they’re going to be killed. I want to save them.” </p><p>The demon looked out, into the evening, where titans were slowly starting to still for the night. “Leviathan’s mark is on them, too,” it said. “I can’t fix them.” He looked back, that inexplicable glint still sharp. “But I can kill them.” </p><p>“Then do it,” Grisha said. “Kill them all.”</p><p>“Grisha,” Kruger warned.</p><p>“Your friend is smart,” the demon told him. “You should be more specific, when talking to a demon.” He took a predatory step closer. “What do you want to bind me to do?”</p><p>Grisha swallowed. “...I want you to kill every titan,” he said, firmly. “Every single one, until no more exist.”</p><p>The demon reached out, catching Grisha’s hand, raising it up while it shook in his grip. He turned it over in the air, bearing the wrist, and brought it to his mouth, biting down. </p><p>Black veins spread out instantly, crawling across his skin, and shifted on its surface, looping themselves into a circular seal, almost like a compass, though marked with symbols Grisha could not read. </p><p>“I am bound,” the demon said, smoothly, releasing Grisha’s wrist-...</p><p>…-And darting its hand out to the side, to Kruger, sharp claws sinking through the flesh of the man’s throat. </p><p>Grisha let out a startled cry, stumbling back, as blood rained forth, the demon tearing Kruger’s throat out without mercy. </p><p>Kruger hit his knees choking, and fell dead to the dirt, leaving Grisha staring in horror. </p><p><em> “Every </em>titan,” the demon said. “He is no exception.” </p><p>“But…”</p><p>“He would have died in days anyway,” the demon said, dismissively. “The Leviathan’s mark can’t be erased. You could take it, of course.”</p><p>“The Leviathan’s mark?” Grisha echoed. “You said that was going to kill him, right? And the titans have it, too?”</p><p>“The Leviathan was never meant to be bound,” the demon said. “But it got greedy, and sealed itself to a human...and this is the result. Humans corrupted with the power to devour the world, but unable to do anything but wander aimlessly with it, braindead the second the power touches their heart. Shells.” The demon gestured to Kruger’s body, face down in the dirt. “These ones, the ones in between - they consume the power knowingly, and that makes them different. They take on the binding the first contractor bore - a piece of it, anyway - and they can control it, to some degree.” </p><p>“Making titan shifters,” Grisha said, combining the demon’s information with the story he’d gotten from Kruger. “Titans- they’re demonic?” </p><p>The demon hummed noncommittally. “They bear a power they shouldn’t touch,” it said. “Not quite a demon’s...much darker. That’s why I can’t do anything about it.” It looked back to Grisha. “But <em> you </em>can take on the ability. He carries a syringe of Leviathan-tainted essence. Take the injection, and then consume him, and you’ll take on his power.”</p><p>Grisha eyed the demon suspiciously. “And then you can kill me,” he said. “Because I’ll be a titan.”</p><p>The demon <em> laughed, </em> the sound so strange from such a distinct, impossible mouth. “I can’t kill a contract,” he said. “I’m bound to you until I have done what you asked. If you take the power, you’ll have thirteen years to live your life, before the Leviathan’s curse kills you. If I have not killed the titans by then, I’ll have to suspend you in the last day of your life, preserving you until I’m done. If you die without me completing the deal, then <em> I </em>die. Do you understand?”</p><p>“You have to keep me alive, and do what I asked, or you die,” Grisha summarized. “Why would you take a contract, then? Why would you put yourself at risk?”</p><p>The demon tipped its feathered head. “What risk?” he asked. “Even Leviathan’s shadows are not a match for a demon. Your contract is simple. It will take time, given its scale - I am stronger closer to you, as a binding point. Killing any titans that are not on this island will be a bit more of a nuisance.” He looked up, at the walls behind them. “And then….there are <em> those.”  </em></p><p>“Don’t kill them until the ones outside the walls are all gone,” Grisha said. “If the walls fall before then, everyone within them will die.”</p><p>“You’re lucky,” the demon said. “Your friend knew who to call. A lesser demon would not have cared if those people died. It would be happy to screw you over, taking the walls down right away.”</p><p>Grisha eyed the demon warily. “But you…?”</p><p>“But, <em> I,” </em> the demon continued, “enjoy humanity. My abilities are all based in human ties - I can draw humans together, I can influence their relationships. You need to get inside the walls, while I work, and the easiest way to make them trust you is to go with you.” He shifted, looking to Grisha. “There is...an <em> alternative </em>to your deal, if it interests you.” </p><p>Grisha narrowed his eyes, suspicious. “What?”</p><p>“You consume your friend,” the demon said. “You obtain his power, and his curse. In thirteen years, you die.”</p><p>“After you’ve killed the titans?”</p><p><em> “Before,” </em> the demon said. “But you find a successor. Not just for the Leviathan’s curse, but your deal. You pass my seal along, ensure that I stay bound to the initial contact.”</p><p>“And why would I do that?” Grisha asked. </p><p>“Because,” the demon said, easily, “Your friend is not the only one with that ability. I can see the Leviathan’s mark, but only on a soul that’s bared to me. If I am to kill the other titan shifters, I will have to find them the old fashioned way. I can influence ties, though - I can draw people to you, convince them to trust you. Once I find the shifters, I can keep them near you, until every other titan is dead. The shifters must die <em> last, </em>unless there is someone to consume them, or their power will simply jump to someone else under the Leviathan’s curse. Another titan.”</p><p>“So you need someone alive to tie them to,” Grisha realized. “And if you can’t find them all by the end of my time, and you have to put me in ‘stasis,’ or whatever you’d said you’d do-...”</p><p>“Then you would be suspended in a second of your life,” the demon completed. “And not able to so much as draw a breath. Ties require feeding from both sides - you can’t form new ties when you are trapped in between life and death that way. To keep going, you’ll need a successor.” </p><p>“You can’t draw them to yourself?” Grisha asked. </p><p>“No,” the demon said. “I influence ties between souls. I don’t have one. There’s nothing to tie them to.” </p><p>Grisha turned, looking to the wall, then back to the demon. “...What is your name?”</p><p>“Aamon,” the demon said. “But demonic names are only invoked for rites. Call me whatever you’d like.”</p><p>Grisha looked to the body in the dirt, then back to Aamon. “...Eren.”</p><p>“Eren it is,” the demon said. He stepped forward, crouching down beside the body, digging in its pockets until he recovered a small syringe. “Here it is. Are you ready?” </p><p>“Are you going to come within the walls with me?” Grisha asked, instead of an answer. “To influence people, like you said?”</p><p>Black eyes landed on him again, measuring...and then shifted, retreated, the form of the person in front of him changing, until he was staring at a young man with jet-black hair and a grin made of wolf’s teeth. </p><p>“I have many forms,” he said. “Are you <em> ready?” </em></p><p>Grisha cast one last look at his deceased ally, ever so briefly a friend. </p><p>“...I’m ready.”</p><p>
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</p><p>Eren shifted again when Grisha’s transformation was complete, taking on the form of a small child. </p><p>Grisha got the impression that Eren had little control over the specifics of his form, as his hair stayed the same, framing his face in a way that made him look oddly unmatched to the rest of his ‘age’-appropriate appearance, and when he looked at Grisha and grinned, his full set of wolfish teeth were clearly visible. </p><p>They wandered the length of the wall in the dark until they were found by a man, who introduced himself as Keith Shadis, and seemed very suspicious of them for all of about five seconds. </p><p>When he went to question Grisha, though, Eren had reached up, casually catching the man’s hand, blank dark gaze locking with Shadis’...and that was like flipping a switch, the man suddenly only concerned about them being outside, eager to get them somewhere safe.</p><p>Grisha took this to be a show of Eren’s ability - influencing ties between people, making Shadis feel compassionate toward Grisha, as a complete stranger. </p><p>He didn’t think it was simply the man reacting to the presence of a child, though. The aura that surrounded Eren was not childlike at all, and there was no innocent light in his eyes, just a dull judgement and a single spark of curiosity. </p><p>Eren's ability proved itself again and again in the days that passed, leaving a lot of people nodding understandingly when Grisha appeared out of nowhere and claimed he had no memory of who he was or how he'd gotten there, accepting it as a strange-but-sad truth and reading no further into it. </p><p>Except…</p><p>
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</p><p>"Hey, little man."</p><p>Eren looked up as the waitress returned, grinning down at him, as she always did. </p><p>"Your dad hasn't brought you by to see me in a few days," she said, crouching down to be at his eye-level. "I was starting to think you two'd forgotten about me." </p><p>She always spoke to Eren first - she liked Grisha, but no matter how hard he pushed it, no matter how strong he built the tie between them, she <em> always </em>spoke to Eren first. </p><p>Eren...kind of liked it. </p><p>"Sorry, Carla," Grisha said, from the other side of their table. "Out of town patient. We had to take a little trip for a few days."</p><p>Meaning, of course, that Grisha had found himself work to keep him out of sight while Eren scaled the wall and played with the titans, studying them, trying to determine how the Leviathan's curse worked exactly, and how best to counter it. They did this every few months, and so far, Eren had learned little. Titans were beasts of boiling water, healed almost immediately after being injured, and had no real sense or reason to them. </p><p>He'd been <em> told </em>those things, though, and not being able to add to anything he confirmed was starting to wear on his patience. </p><p>"A trip, huh?" Carla asked, smiling at Grisha fondly, before turning back to Eren. "Did you have fun?"</p><p>"No," Eren told her, simply. </p><p>She hummed, clearly suppressing a giggle. She'd gotten past the point of laughing at his bluntness, and now only slipped up at particularly jarring statements, otherwise respecting the fact that Eren got annoyed quickly by being laughed at. </p><p>"Sorry, buddy," she said. "Maybe you should get a snack tonight to make up for it?"</p><p>She grinned over at Grisha.</p><p>"He won't eat it," Grisha said, looking between them anxiously. He cared a lot for Carla, and Eren could tell he spent a significant amount of time worrying about her fixation on the disguised demon, and if she would ever catch on to the ruse. Things like the restaurant were heavy contenders for the possible final straw - Eren and food had a strange, distinct relationship, and being shrugged off as a picky eater would only save him so many times. </p><p>The thing was, Eren primarily siphoned his energy off the people around him, reaching into their souls and creating a false tie through which he could 'feed.' He didn't eat, not because he couldn't, but because it was unnecessary, and it seemed like a waste to take something vital to Grisha's survival and essentially burn it by putting it into his own stomach. </p><p>Carla always wanted to feed him, though. She was always proposing snacks, meals, anything she thought he might have interest in. </p><p>"Have you ever had a burger, Eren?" Carla asked. "I bet you'd like it."</p><p>Eren watched her with curiosity. </p><p>Carla was an enigma to him. Demons had no ties, no souls to form them with, and yet Carla reached out to him anyway, insisting in trying to forge one. </p><p>"...I'll try it."</p><p>Carla let out a thrilled sound, and - to Eren's surprise - leaned forward, pecking a quick kiss to his forehead, before heading off toward the kitchen. </p><p>Eren blinked after her, stunned, and then looked to Grisha. </p><p>"You're going to eat?" the man asked, sounding just as baffled as Eren felt. </p><p>Eren shot a glance toward the kitchen, then raised a hand, pressing it against the point of his forehead the kiss had fallen on. </p><p>"....We," he said, softly, but determined, "are going to keep her."</p><p>
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</p><p>They kept her. </p><p>Specifically, Grisha kept her. He married her, and they got a house, and Carla filled in as the 'mother' to Grisha's 'father' role, and Eren got used to sleeping at night and eating three times a day, because Grisha had insisted Carla not know the truth and Eren honestly agreed. </p><p>It was...nice.</p><p>Grisha still took him to "out of town appointments," and Eren still abandoned him during the trips to jump the wall and see what he could find in the lumbering beasts outside. </p><p>The answer was still 'very little.'</p><p>More than that, they only knew <em> one </em>titan shifter, and that was just 'someone in the royal family,' not even a name. </p><p>Eren, however, found himself less frustrated by that then he should have been. It was rather simple to fall into playing the role of a child, to wake with his parents and to venture into the city, to speak with adults and run small errands as Grisha went about his business, to return home to find his mother there, ready to make a special dinner for Eren's finicky tastes - which had all but vanished, miraculously, because Eren didn't honestly care <em> what </em> he ate, if he was going to be doing it anyway. </p><p>And, then, there were the Ackermans.</p><p>
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</p><p>"How far are we?" Eren asked. </p><p>"Well past civilization, now," Grisha replied. "You can change."</p><p>Eren let out a relieved sigh, and <em> stretched, </em>his child form breaking and shifting until he was man-sized again, head back to its feathered form, eyes blacker than the night around them. </p><p>"It took too long," Eren complained, stretching out in the back of the wagon, looking up at the stars. "They don't do much at night. It would be a waste of my time to go now."</p><p>"I can't help that," Grisha said. "At least you got to stretch out a bit."</p><p>"I'd have rather stayed home," Eren admitted. "I like Carla more than you."</p><p>"I'm aware," Grisha said, a slight laugh in his voice. </p><p>"It can't be helped," Eren sighed, shifting in the wagon, moving to clamber up into the front beside Grisha. "You can just entertain yourself tomorrow while you wait on me." </p><p>"I'll find something," Grisha agreed easily. "Unless the Ackermans need more than I can do in one night."</p><p>"They-..."</p><p>Eren stopped, suddenly, head tipping to one side. </p><p>"What is it?" Grisha asked. </p><p>Eren reached out, snatching the reins from Grisha's hands, pulling hard to one side. The horses followed the guide, dragging the wagon into skidding to a stop at an angle. </p><p>"Eren?!" Grisha asked, panicked. "What-...?"</p><p>"Someone's invoking a demon," Eren murmured, hopping off the wagon, breathing in the spark of hellfire in the air. "It's strong...there's <em> pain </em>in it…"</p><p>"Summoning a demon?" Grisha exclaimed. "What do we-...?</p><p><em> "We </em>do nothing," Eren said, waving him off. "You...wait here a moment, then continue to the Ackermans' house. I'll see what this is."</p><p>"What?" Grisha frowned at him. "You <em> have </em>a contract, Eren."</p><p>"I don't want another," he said. "But there's something happening, here. I want to see what it is."</p><p>
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</p><p>There was death in the air, when Eren arrived. </p><p>"Hmm…" </p><p>He stopped outside the cabin, the inside of which he could <em> feel </em>was the source of the summons. </p><p>He scented the air.</p><p>
  <em> There's definitely blood.  </em>
</p><p>He tipped his head, listening. </p><p>"Can't believe you killed the woman," someone was saying. "She was worth the most. You know what slavers would pay for a girl like that?"</p><p>
  <em> Blood, and value, it seems.  </em>
</p><p>That just left…</p><p>"The daughter will sell just fine," another voice said, dismissive. "Even if she is only half."</p><p>Daughter. </p><p>The woman killed...had a daughter. </p><p>Blood, value, sentiment. </p><p>The men speaking behind the door were not the contractors. </p><p>Eren gave a wicked grin into the night, and shifted, knocking on the door from a lower angle. </p><p>A moment later, the wood swung open. "What the hell-...?" </p><p>The man stopped short, eyes on Eren. </p><p>"...What's a teenager doing in the woods, kid?" He demanded, narrowed eyes on him.</p><p>"I was summoned," Eren replied, perfectly evenly. </p><p>He darted a hand out, talons stretching out from his fingertips, and tore through the throat of the kidnapper, tossing his body carelessly to the side. </p><p>"What the fuck?" The other kidnapper got to his feet, staring wide-eyed at Eren. "You little brat-...!"</p><p>Eren crossed the room in a blink, talons sinking through the man's chest, finding his heart and closing around it, crushing the chambers and watching with satisfaction as the would-be trafficker spasmed in response. </p><p>When he collapsed, Eren pulled free, letting his fingers ease back into regular human shapes. </p><p>"Scum," he muttered, looking down at the body, before turning to the side. </p><p>To his summoner. </p><p>She looked young, maybe around ten years old, or even younger - his grasp on human ages wasn't very firm. She was younger than he pretended to be, certainly. </p><p>He crouched beside her, letting one nail turn back to shave through the ropes around her wrists, cutting her free. </p><p>"You are pretty strong, little bird," Eren muttered. "I could feel your intent halfway through the woods." </p><p>The girl shifted, rolling onto her back, then sitting upright, watching Eren's face blankly. </p><p>"There….were three."</p><p>Eren blinked at her, processing, before movement caught his eye, and he shot to his feet just in time to be met head-on by a third man. Impact bad him skidding back a step, and he huffed out an irate breath, annoyed at having been caught off guard. </p><p>He'd gotten far too used to playing at a child. </p><p>He lunged for the kidnapper, catching him by the throat and throwing him down, pinning him to the ground. </p><p>"You called me, little bird," Eren hissed, looking up and over to the girl. "Blood touched the dirt, something of value was lost, something sentimental was given. That's a demon deal." He let his eyes bleed black. "You've got me, now. What do you want from me?" He beared down a bit on the throat of the man he had pinned, causing him to let out a strangled cry. "Do you want me to kill this one?" He grinned his wolfish smile. "Do you want me to make you strong enough to do it yourself?"</p><p>The girl stared at him, eyes wide, something unreadable beyond them. </p><p>And then, something shifted, and she stood on shaky legs, crossing the room to him, coming to his shoulder, looking down into the eyes of the struggling man still effortlessly held to the floor. </p><p>"You tore his heart out," she said, softly. "And the other man - you got his throat."</p><p>The man on the ground looked between them with wide, panicked eyes, clawing uselessly at Eren's hand. </p><p>"I did," Eren agreed easily. "But you don't have to do it like that."</p><p>She looked at him, an almost manic glint in her eyes. "What do I do?"</p><p>The man kicked up a renewed fight, thrashing wildly, and Eren turned his hand, threatening to crush him. </p><p>"The other one had a knife," Eren said. "Get it."</p><p>She turned, moving to the mangled body, and returned a moment later with a bloody knife held delicately on her open palms. </p><p>Eren placed a hand on the chest of the man, and the other under his chin, pushing him to bear his throat. </p><p>"Kill him."</p><p>The girl stood, staring at the knife in her hands. </p><p>"Or I will," Eren said. "But in life, everything is a fight. If you don't fight...you don't win. If you don't win, you don't live. Understand, little bird?"</p><p>"....My name is Mikasa," the girl murmured. </p><p>And she raised the knife, her hands steadying once in the air, and brought it down. </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>The sound of horses outside drew Eren’s attention to the outside of the cabin, and he moved to peek out the window, catching a glimpse of a familiar face outside. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, wait…” He turned, crossing the room, and crouched down next to the girl again, wiping a bit of blood off her cheek. “Mikasa, right? Is your last name Ackerman?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She gave a short nod. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Huh,” Eren said, moving to stand, extending a hand down to her to help her up. “The doctor was coming to see you guys. Interesting timing.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>She took his hand meekly, letting him haul her up off the ground, until she was upright, staring blankly at the floor. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well, that only gives us a second,” Eren said, looking down to her. “You summoned me, Mikasa, even if you didn’t mean to. You made the deal. What is it you want?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She raised her eyes up to him, watching him warily, before shifting to look over the cabin, destruction and blood and cooling bodies within. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“...I want...family.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Can’t revive the dead,” Eren murmured. “But familial ties are my specialty. If you want a family, you’ll have one.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She looked at him, uncomprehending.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Eren raised a hand, fingertips turning into sharp claws again. “Turn your head.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Clearly beyond the point of doing anything other than what she was told, Mikasa obeyed, baring her neck and shoulder to Eren. He reached out, setting talons against the skin of her shoulder, and sinking them in lightly, just enough for the ichor to shift and carve the black ink mark at the base of her neck.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She didn't even flinch. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He pulled free, the wound sealing up as though it had never existed, and he reached up, pulling the scarf from his own shoulders to wrap it around her neck. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“A deal’s a deal,” Eren said, standing up. “You’re coming home with us.” </span>
</p><p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p><p>
  <span>About halfway through the ride back, Mikasa fell asleep in the back of the wagon, collapsing against Eren’s side, which she had refused to leave. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Taking the opportunity, Grisha demanded, “What happened in that cabin?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Exactly what I told you,” Eren said, slightly annoyed by the questioning. “Some human trafficking types tried to take her, killed her parents, I took them out.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You went to a deal,” Grisha said. “I didn’t say anything in front of the girl, but-...”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, yeah,” Eren said. “She’s the contract.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Grisha turned over his shoulder, eyes off the path to stare back at Eren in horror. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Her parents were killed,” Eren said. “She wanted to live...that was enough to make the blood read like a sacrifice.” He raised a hand, dropping it down on the girl’s head. “I guided her through the </span>
  <em>
    <span>intent </span>
  </em>
  <span>part, and we made a deal.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You said you didn’t-...”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well, it’s not gonna stop me from doing yours,” Eren protested. “In fact, I might have solved a problem.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Grisha eyed him incredulously. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“She wants a family,” Eren said. “You need a successor. Easy.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You want me to turn her into a </span>
  <em>
    <span>titan?” </span>
  </em>
  <span>Grisha hissed. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah,” Eren agreed. “It makes sense, doesn’t it?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Grisha turned harshly away, hunching in on himself in the front of the wagon. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Taking that as a yes, Eren looked back out into the night passing behind them, hand still on Mikasa’s hair. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The loose tie of a new contract sung to him, and the power of two deals feeding into him felt good, but there was something else. Some other kind of tie, one he couldn’t get a decent feel for, interlaced with the new binding. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>And he had no idea what it was. </span>
</p><p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
  <br/>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p><p>
  <span>Carla, of course, loved Mikasa immediately. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mikasa, upon learning that Carla knew nothing about Eren's demonic origins, promptly threw the information out and proceed as though he were utterly normal, which fit well into Carla's doting motherhood, giving him </span>
  <em>
    <span>two </span>
  </em>
  <span>mother hens who fussed about him, despite regularly hopping the walls to carve apart titans and watch the steam rise off their bodies in the sun. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Also, she was better at everything than him. As much as he played at human around Carla, he </span>
  <em>
    <span>wasn't, </span>
  </em>
  <span>and had a hard time narrowing his focus to mundane things like gathering wood for the fires, leaving him to be outpaced by a mile by Mikasa, who did everything she was asked to the fullest extent of her ability, no questions asked. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Eren let this go on for a good month or two before he finally had enough and snapped, turning to Grisha when Mikasa was asleep during a trip to the wall. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>"She's fixated on me," he said. "No matter how much I pour into her ties with you two, she only cares about me." </span>
</p><p>
  <span>"You saved her life," Grisha pointed out. "She's only ten. You're her whole world."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Well," Eren said, tensely, "Her world should expand."</span>
</p><p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p><p>
  <span>Once they got home from that trip, Eren started his research. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He only had a handful of moments on any given day that he was out from under Mikasa's eye, so he had to use them wisely. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Anytime he got the chance, he fled the house: slipping through the window while Carla and Mikasa were working on dinner, taking the "long way" grabbing firewood, volunteering to run an errand in town </span>
  <em>
    <span>real fast, I'll be right back, you don't have to come-...</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>He didn't even know who he was looking for, originally. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Certainly not Armin. </span>
</p><p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p><p>
  <span>Armin was skinny, short, and soft-spoken- most of the time. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>When Eren found him, though, he was most certainly not, screaming in the face of a child around the same age Eren appeared that if he spent his whole life scared of books he'd die in a potato field like every other hopeless laborer the city churned out. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Eren decided then that he liked him, and the mark was placed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It took a while to work it out - Mikasa was very hard to deter from a task, even if it was Eren dragging her around, and his senses couldn't seem to pick up anything close enough for him to be able to make the detour. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Finally, though, it happened to line up that a grocery trip lined up just right with Armin getting bullied in front of a shop for having a book, and Eren was able to lead Mikasa right to him. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>"That kid reads a lot," Eren informed her, standing off at a distance. "Other children...don't seem to care for this." He looked at her, grinning. "They should know better, yeah?"</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She slid her eyes to him, and reached up, tugging at the fabric of the scarf she never took off. Pulling it slightly, she brought it up a millimeter higher, and fixed hard eyes on the boys ahead. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>In an instant, she was off, and Eren watched gleefully as she rescued Armin from them, leaving them scrambling off, humiliated and filthy. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>"That's great," Eren praised her, coming to stand with her. "Boys that age get really annoyed when a girl shows them up."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mikasa turned dull eyes on him. "Like when I get more firewood than you."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Eren bristled. "I was complimenting you," he told her. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>"No, you weren't," she countered. "You were insulting them."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Same thing," Eren argued, before turning to their rescued party. "Armin, right? I'm Eren, this is Mikasa."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"...Hello," Armin greeted them, warily, clutching his book tighter. Under his arm, Eren caught a glimpse of a faded picture of a lake. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>"What's that?" He asked, taking a step closer, pausing when Armin immediately recoiled. "Not trying to take it. Just don't usually see stuff like that around here."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"....It's illegal," Armin said, quietly. "Any stuff about the world outside the walls is."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Eren blinked. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>That...was new information, to him. He'd noticed that everyone was still knee deep in the dark ages, but to think that they'd outright </span>
  <em>
    <span>banned </span>
  </em>
  <span>the knowledge they'd spent centuries building as a species-...</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Curious. Very curious. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He'd have to ask Grisha about it, later. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>"So why are you carrying it?" Eren asked. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>"...I wanted to read more about it," Armin said, quietly. "There's- there's a whole world outside the walls. Bodies of water that go so far you can't see the edges."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"...The ocean?"</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Armin's eyes widened. "You know…?"</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Eren hesitated. He knew a lot more about the fucked up history of the island he was on than anyone living in it, but- but he'd done a very good job of keeping that information to himself, so far. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Did he want to break that streak?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>All he'd come for was the chance to find another hapless soul to pawn Mikasa's attention onto. Instead, he was giving himself more and more questions to ask. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>"...I know the ocean," Eren said. "I know the things that </span>
  <em>
    <span>live </span>
  </em>
  <span>in the ocean. I know the things that live </span>
  <em>
    <span>below</span>
  </em>
  <span> the ocean."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Armin stared at him in awe. "The...the fish..?"</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"More than fish," Eren said. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>"You're playing with him," Mikasa accused, softly, from the side. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>"I'm not!" He defended. "Really, I didn't expect to run into someone smuggling books. I just thought you might like him."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mikasa blinked at him, clearly taken aback by that. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>"...</span>
  <em>
    <span>Like</span>
  </em>
  <span> me..?" Armin echoed. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Hey, kid," Eren said, looking at him. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>"...You're not that much older than me," Armin protested. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Eren hesitated a moment. "...Maybe not," he said, ignoring Mikasa shooting him a look from the side. "But I know some more things, if you wanna hear them."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And like that, their family grew again. </span>
</p><p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
  <br/>
  <br/>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p><p>
  <span>Titans, unfortunately for Eren, had a scent. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The sick saltiness of the sea, the musk of humidity from that boiling steam inside them, the overwhelming aura of blood - an inescapable part of being around them. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Inside the walls, it was usually absent. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Usually. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Eren."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Eren blinked, looking over at Mikasa, standing nearby with a full pack of sticks. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Already?" He asked, incredulous. "You just started."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"No I haven't," Mikasa argued. "You've been staring at the sky."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"The sky…?"</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Eren looked up, into the clear blue and soft white clouds. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>"No…" he said, shaking his head and then turning again, looking into the town. "No, I was...sensing."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He could feel Mikasa's demeanor shift. "Sensing?"</span>
</p><p>
  <span>For the most part, they ignored the truth of Eren's nature. They played at normal siblings, twelve and ten respectively, and the only people who knew this wasn't true were them and Grisha. Even Armin only knew Eren as a knowledgeable source due to research with his father - which, technically, was not a lie. Most of his research just happened to be </span>
  <em>
    <span>field </span>
  </em>
  <span>based...and "father" was an inaccurate word to describe the people who had held Eren's contract over the ages. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>But they didn't mention it. Eren took trips with Grisha to the wall to treat a patient and hopped the stonework, crawling up the crystallized bodies until he was free to roam the dead men walking on the other side. He studied, he killed, he returned. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Grisha still did not hand over his contract. Eren still did not know the location of any of the shifters. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Time ticked on. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>"What were you sensing?" Mikasa asked. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Eren pursed his lips, looking out at the top edge of the wall. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>"...I don't know…"</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Something was….</span>
  <em>
    <span>just </span>
  </em>
  <span>outside his reach. A point of </span>
  <em>
    <span>something </span>
  </em>
  <span>just...sitting there. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>"I need to get closer," he declared, hopping to his feet, and took off without waiting, heading toward the town gates. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mikasa, as expected, followed immediately after him. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The closer he got to the gate, the denser the crowd got. Faces all around and loose ties strung between them - Eren almost got tangled in them, and overall, the anxious energy passing between them. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Something's happening," Eren muttered. "Something-...."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Bells rang out, and the crowd around them erupted in whispers. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>"They're back," someone said, nearby. "I wonder how many made it…"</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Its the Survey Corps," Mikasa said. "They just went on an expedition, they're getting back today."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"The Survey Corps," Eren echoed. He knew of the different military branches, but from what he had gathered, they were essentially different groups specifically dedicated to sitting around on their ass in different places but similar uniforms. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The Survey Corps, though…</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"They are the soldiers that go outside, yeah?" Eren asked. "They fight the titans?"</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Yes," Mikasa confirmed. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Eren cast a glance over the crowd, before darting off to the side again, to a collection of boxes beside a building that he could climb up to see over the crowd. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>It only occurred to him when he was settled that he could have simply shifted form. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He was getting far too used to being human. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>In front of him, past the sea of people, there was an isle where the crowd parted, and at the end of it, the gates were slowly swinging open. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>A moment of silence fell over the crowd. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Eren found himself holding his breath - and then, a moment later, he was glad he had. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Despair proceeded the returning soldiers, churning through the air, infecting the crowd before a single uniform was even in sight. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>As they marched through, it only got worse, the feeling amplified by the carts of bodies, the bandages, the blood. Horses with no riders, riders with haunted eyes. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The whispers took up again. People pointing out the numbers - how many had gone, how many had made it back. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Questioning. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>"They...are being decimated," Eren breathed. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Humans can barely fight titans," Mikasa said, flatly. "Of course they're dying."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Eren scanned the soldiers' faces. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Did….did Grisha see this? Did he know how many were dying for the ignorance of the nation's people? </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Screams drew his attention again, and he watched a mother come streaming into the crowd, collapsing in front of a commander to sob for her lost son. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>That...could have just as easily been Carla. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>In another world, another life, where she had her own, </span>
  <em>
    <span>real </span>
  </em>
  <span>son, and he was raised in the lies of the interior, and he was set out into the world as part of this...this futile effort to….</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He could smell the titan stench rolling off them, and it fueled his anger. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He needed to talk to Grisha. </span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Now. </span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
  <br/>
  <br/>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p><p>
  <span>"The laws?"</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Eren gave a harsh nod. "They are deliberately hiding what is going on from the people inside, aren't they?" He demanded. "So they just...dress people up and throw them into the jaws of death, so they don't have to admit they're doomed as they stand?"</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Grisha gave him an unreadable look. Then, very slowly, he reached into his shirt, fishing out a key that hung from a necklace there. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>"I've found some things," he said. "Some...details, here and there, while you were researching titans. Ideas about what might be going on behind the scenes of the royal family. I-..."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The door slammed open. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>"We need to go," Carla cried, apparently in the doorway with tears streaming down from wide, terrified eyes. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Grisha got to his feet immediately. "What's happening?"</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Eren went to ask the same, but paused, looking up as a sound caught him - </span>
  <em>
    <span>screams, </span>
  </em>
  <span>echoing through the streets all around their house. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>"What is-.."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Titans," Carla sobbed. "They've breached the wall!" </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Eren froze. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He could feel it, then: the blood soaking the earth, the last intentions of dying men….the ever present fog of Leviathan's filth and corruption growing thicker as the beasts closed in. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>"No," Eren said, looking to Grisha. "Leviathan's minions are brainless, they'd never get through that wall."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Unless they had help," Grisha countered. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>"What?" Carla asked, looking between them in confusion. "What's- what are you talking about? We need to </span>
  <em>
    <span>go."</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>"Contract's expiring too early," Eren said. "You still don't have-..."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Boys!"</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Just a second!" Eren snapped. Ignoring her wounded flinch, he looked back to Grisha. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>"You have to make the transfer," Eren said. "This is the only time we can do it and get away with it. No one will notice one more titan. I'll take care of her."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"I'm not turning Mikasa," Grisha said. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>"What do you mean, you're not?!" Eren demanded. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>"I've been thinking," Grisha said. "You said they were creatures. Things like you, just..shoved into bodies that don't fit. If </span>
  <em>
    <span>you </span>
  </em>
  <span>took that on-..."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"I can't be a titan," Eren said. "Its the corruption of a human body. I don't </span>
  <em>
    <span>have </span>
  </em>
  <span>one."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"But could you take the shifter?" Grisha asked. "Could you keep it from passing on to anyone else?"</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Eren hesitated. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>"You could, couldn't you?" Grisha asked. "But you don't want to."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Eren faltered. "...Leviathan's taint is toxic to humans," he said, "but to a demon-..."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Demons..?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Eren looked over, watching Carla's eyes flick between them in confusion. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>"I don't-...."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The door burst open again, and Eren heard someone shout </span>
  <em>
    <span>"Get down," </span>
  </em>
  <span>a force slamming into his waist to bowl him over, and then the world went black. </span>
</p><p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p><p>
  <span>Eren opened his eyes to smoke and chaos. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>People were running, all around, screaming….cutting those screams off abruptly as they were caught by the beasts. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>A glance down showed him buried partway in rubble, and he shifted, rolling the boulders away effortlessly, dragging himself out. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The force that tackled him had to have been Mikasa, and a moment later, he located her, a few feet away, attention on something in the rubble.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Mikasa!" He called. "What-..."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He froze. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Carla's body lay prone at his feet, crushed under rocks. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>"...No," Eren said, softly, voice shaking with rage and grief. "No, she's just a human, she wasn't- if she hadn't been trying to get </span>
  <em>
    <span>me-..."</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>"We need to leave, Eren," Mikasa said. Her voice was cold and distant, the same way it had been when they first met. "Where did Doctor Yeager go?"</span>
</p><p>
  <span>That...was a good question. It was hard to focus on it, though, with the body of the woman he'd thought of as a mother at his feet. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>"....Mom…"</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Eren! Mikasa!"</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Eren jolted as a hand hit his shoulder, and jerked his head up, looking wide eyed into the empathetic face of one of the city guard. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>"I'm sorry, kids," he said. "But we need to get you out of here."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"I can't-..." Eren looked back to Carla. "I have to-..."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"There's nothing we can do for her now, son," Hannes said. "If we stay here, you'll die, too."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Die. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>She was </span>
  <em>
    <span>dead. </span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Souls leaving earth for him were usually feasts. The broken ties they left behind were a buffet he couldn't resist. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He didn't want this one. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Eren," Hannes prompted.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He cast a glance around the rubble. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Where was Grisha?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Oh, fucking-..."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Eren yelped as he found himself scooped off the ground, thrown in an undignified slump over Hannes' shoulder, the soldier starting off toward the inner gates. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Put me down!" Eren yelled. Part of him was tempted to fight, or transform in some way, but-</span>
</p><p>
  <span>...But he didn't know where Grisha was. He didn't know what they were going to do next. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He didn't know who he was meant to be now. </span>
</p><p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
  <br/>
  <br/>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p><p>
  <span>Grisha did not join them. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Eren and Mikasa were dropped with Armin and his granddad, and they were all shuffled onto an overcrowded ship, which sailed the border waters…</span>
</p><p>
  <span>...giving them a view of the inner gate crashing down. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Eren's eyes locked on the armored titan in the crashed wall, taking in every detail. </span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>I will find you, </span>
  </em>
  <span>he thought. </span>
  <em>
    <span>I don't know where Grisha is, but his contract still stands. I feel it. </span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>And I will fulfill it. </span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>I will kill you all. </span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Chapter 3</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>They are given positions working a fucking potato field. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Eren hates it immediately, and is of the opinion they would be much better off if they snuck to the wall, and he found somewhere safe to put Mikasa while he killed titans in her vicinity. </span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>In her vicinity </span>
  </em>
  <span>was key, because he was still bound to his contracts, and while he was painfully aware of any time he got out of Mikasa’s range, he never seemed to feel any closer to Grisha. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Part of him wondered if Grisha </span>
  <em>
    <span>had </span>
  </em>
  <span>transferred his contract to her, somehow, but he couldn’t find the tie for it anywhere when he looked at Mikasa. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was just...invisible. He knew the contract still stood, didn’t feel any resolution from it, didn’t feel it break...but when he reached for it, he came up with nothing. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was frustrating. Almost as frustrating as working the </span>
  <em>
    <span>damn potato field. </span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Their big break came only a couple of months after the wall fell, when the government buckled under the pressure of so many hungry mouths. They launched an initiative, a massive scale suicide mission, where sacrifices would be cherry picked out of the crowd of Maria survivors and sent out to rectify that survival. </span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>“Excellent,” Eren said, the second Armin told them about it. “I can </span>
  <em>
    <span>do </span>
  </em>
  <span>something.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Both of his tiny human friends looked at him - Mikasa’s eyes, disapproving; Armin’s, horrified. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Eren,” Armin said, slowly, “You can’t fight titans. You’re- you’re not military, you’re a civilian, you’re </span>
  <em>
    <span>twelve-...” </span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Eren snorted, but didn’t get the chance to out them or argue before Mikasa cut in with a sharp, “You can’t get that far away from me.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Armin nodded emphatically. “We won’t let you go,” he said, clearly of the impression this was a sentimental choice. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Eren, though, couldn’t argue, because it was true - he didn’t know how much use he’d be if he was outside the walls and Mikasa was here, stuck inside them. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>There was also his contract itself - Grisha was missing and Carla was dead, which left Mikasa’s family deal unfulfilled. Mikasa’s current family was only him and Armin. If he left them behind, and something happened, he’d have abandoned a contract. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>A chill ran down his spine at the thought. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>When the military recruiters came through, though, and offered to take anyone who wanted to train to fight to avoid the draft...Eren kept silent. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He wasn’t drafted. He helped Mikasa and Armin work the field. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I hate this,” he told them, one evening, staring up at the stars. “We’re joining the military.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What?” Armin looked at him, stunned.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mikasa, however, simply shrugged. “They won’t let me in until I’m twelve.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Eren let out a low, irate breath. “...I can wait.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They both turned to the side, looking at Armin, whose eyes flicked between them in horror. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You...you really want to be soldiers?” Armin asked. “We...We’re smart, I bet we could get into the Military Police-...”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Fuck that,” Eren cut in. “It’s the Survey Corps, or we’re wasting our time.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Armin </span>
  <em>
    <span>stared. </span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>“Armin,” Eren said, sitting upright on the little straw roll he had to sleep on, a far cry from the lodgings of kings he’d dwelled in in his eons of life, or even the little child’s bed he’d had in the Yeager house. “I’m going to kill every single titan. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Every single one. </span>
  </em>
  <span>You don’t have to help, but I’m not going to give up on that. I’ve made it a promise, and I will stick to that.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’ll die, Eren,” Armin said. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Eren flopped back down on his back on the bedroll, glaring up at the sky. “Then at least I wouldn’t die a fucking coward.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Armin flinch. They sat there in uncomfortable silence a moment, and then Armin moved away, heading back to his grandfather for the night. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The next day, Armin caught Eren’s arm on the way out to the field. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“As soon as we’re old enough,” he agreed. “We’ll join the Survey Corps.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Eren must have been around humans too long, because his first instinct was to put both his hands on Armin’s shoulders, look him in the eye, and promise, “I will keep you safe.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He intended to honor it like a contract.</span>
</p><p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p><p>
  <span>Mikasa turned twelve in February, but Armin didn’t until </span>
  <em>
    <span>November, </span>
  </em>
  <span>and the months in between were the longest of Eren’s entire existence. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Eventually, though, the recruiter came through, and all three of them were able to put in their names, and were loaded on carts to ship out as part of the 104th Training Corps, Southern Division. </span>
</p><p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p><p>
  <span>“Are you asking me...why people eat potatoes?" </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Eren broke. The snort escaped him before he could stop it, and he felt the atmosphere freeze over another degree and the sound registered with the cadets around. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He watched the drill Sargeant's eyes rise up, fixing on him, and a moment later, he was in Eren's face. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>"You found that </span>
  <em>
    <span>funny, </span>
  </em>
  <span>did you?" He demanded. "What's your name, cadet?"</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Eren snaps into the salute they'd halfheartedly taught them on the way in, hand over his "heart," as useless as the sentiment was for him. "Eren Yeager, sir." </span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Yeager," he echoed. "And why are you here?"</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Eren met his eyes with no hint of hesitation. "To join the Survey Corps, and eliminate every titan."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The sergeant's jaw tipped up a fraction. "Is that right? And you think </span>
  <em>
    <span>you </span>
  </em>
  <span>are enough to do what humanity has struggled for?"</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Eren isn’t stupid enough to say yes, but it must have shown on his face, because a dark cloud passes over the man’s eyes. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Arrogant,” he said, disgust dripping off the word. “Why don’t you show me where that false confidence comes from?” He took a step back from the line, voice raising up as he called the punishment out for everyone to hear. “You and Mrs. Potato can start laps around the camp. The </span>
  <em>
    <span>whole </span>
  </em>
  <span>camp, nonstop, until you’re throwing up. Then do one more. Understood?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“...What if I don’t throw up?” Eren asked, because he wasn’t really sure he </span>
  <em>
    <span>could. </span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>The furious spark in the man’s eyes </span>
  <em>
    <span>erupted. </span>
  </em>
  <span>“You know what, Yeager? I’ll </span>
  <em>
    <span>tell you </span>
  </em>
  <span>when you’re done. Don’t so much as slow down until I say.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Eren could feel the concern on the other end of his tie to Mikasa, and imagined Armin was probably just as worried, if not </span>
  <em>
    <span>more, </span>
  </em>
  <span>given that he still believed Eren to be human. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Whoops. </span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Hell of a first day. </span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p><p>
  <span>It took three hours for the potato girl to hit her knees, but when Eren faltered in his steps to watch her drop, he was met with Shadis yelling, “You’re not done, Yeager!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Scowling, Eren ignored the girl on the ground, and took off running again.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Another hour passed. </span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>If I were a human, I’d be destroyed by now, </span>
  </em>
  <span>Eren thought. </span>
  <em>
    <span>If I want this to be over, I should act like it works. </span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>He couldn’t get sick on command, but it was little work to misstep, staggering to the side a bit and hitting his knees, a mockery of how the girl had given out. </span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>There, </span>
  </em>
  <span>he thought, making a show of pushing himself up out of the dirt. </span>
  <em>
    <span>That should be satisfactory, yeah?</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>He looked up, off to the side, to look for a signal from Shadis. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The training ground was empty. </span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>...You’re fucking kidding me. </span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Letting out a furious sound, Eren hauled himself to his feet. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Fine. If he couldn’t even be assed to sit out there and watch him, Eren wasn’t going to waste the time. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Dinner was long over, and Eren had broken his eating habits almost entirely during the months spent in the ration zones, only ever eating if Armin was watching him, and otherwise pawning the stale bread or malformed potatoes off on Mikasa, or other children around the camp, who generally knew better than to ask questions. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>With no reason to hunt a meal, he headed straight for the building they'd been assigned to sleep in. The girls were in a separate cabin, which was inconvenient, because he was used to feeding off his tie to Mikasa while he slept, which was really the only point in sleeping at all. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Armin would notice if he didn't at least </span>
  <em>
    <span>pretend, </span>
  </em>
  <span>though, so he entered the dorm, seeking out the bunk he'd taken - just the one that happened to be above Armin, because he had no intention of leaving either of his claims. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>When he entered the dorm, though, a whistle went out. He paused in the doorway as a boy stopped a few steps ahead of him, grinning in an...incredibly condescending way. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Hey, you," he greeted. "Bullshitting that you're going to join the Survey Corps isn't gonna get you out of trouble. May as well tell the truth."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Eren gave him a flat, unimpressed stare. "It isn't a lie," he told him. "I'm joining the Survey Corps."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The boy scoffed. "You're either trying to be cool, or you're a dumbass. Saves me the trouble of having to beat you out to join the Military Police."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"You couldn't," Eren tells him, just as unimpressed, with annoyance starting to creep into it. "I'm here to join the Survey Corps, so I need to be able to kill titans in my </span>
  <em>
    <span>sleep. </span>
  </em>
  <span>And, personally, I think any of you who don't are wasting your time. The military is there to protect the people of the walls, and to kill titans. You can't do either of those sitting on your ass three walls deep." </span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Not every threat is a titan," another boy, off to the side, defended. "And someone has to protect our king!" </span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Fuck the-...."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Eren!" </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Eren stopped short, scowling at Armin, but he could see why he stopped him - showing open contempt for the government you were trying to work for was probably a bad start. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>But, honestly, he'd never cared for royalty. They always ended up self centered - even the supposedly saintly ones offered up charity in exchange for unconditional love from their people, not really any desire to improve the world. He'd sat and fed on overflowing ties from a generous king many times in his life, and he doubted this one - who banned </span>
  <em>
    <span>books,</span>
  </em>
  <span> for fucks sake - was any better. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Um," Armin said, withering under Eren's scorn, looking to the boys instead. "Uh, Jean, right? And...Marco?" He shook his head. "Eren is serious. We- we're from Shiganshina. We saw it fall. He has good reason to want to kill titans." </span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Besides the fact that they have humanity as a personal cattle farm, penned up in the walls as future snacks," Eren snapped to them. Deciding that was a good enough final word, he stalked across the room, starting to kick off his boots next to the bed. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Yaeger!"</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Eren let out an irate breath as Shadis' shout came from the doorway, shoved as much spite out of his expression as possible, and turned on his heel to salute their commander. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>"I didn't say you were done, cadet."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"...You left," Eren said. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>"But I didn't tell you to stop."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Eren tried very, very hard not to twitch. At no point in his run had he thought to reach for Mikasa, and her energy was cluttered now - probably worried about him - so feeding on their tie wasn't very helpful. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>In short, Shadis </span>
  <em>
    <span>had </span>
  </em>
  <span>managed to tire him out. Just not physically. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>"I'm waking you up before dawn in the morning," Shadis told him. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>"To run?" Eren asked. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>"To </span>
  <em>
    <span>clean," </span>
  </em>
  <span>Shadis said. "You're cleaning the camp every morning and every night, until they're spotless, until I say otherwise. Got it?"</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Not a difficult task, but tedious. Trying not to show too much outright frustration, he gave a simple, "Yes, sir." </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Shadis turned and stalked out without another word, and Eren dropped his salute, huffing again. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>"He's going to run you out of camp, kid," the boy from the door told him. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>"I'm older than you, horseface," Eren snapped to him, before grabbing the edge of his bunk and heating himself into it, not bothering to undress. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mikasa would probably say he was sulking. </span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Older than the furthest branches of these kids' bloodlines, </span>
  </em>
  <span>he thought to himself, </span>
  <em>
    <span>and they're gonna fucking patronize me?</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>This would be a few long years. </span>
</p><p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p><p>
  <span>Shadis, true to his word, barged into the cabin to drag him out at what was probably, by Eren's internal clock, about three in the morning. The boys around him woken in the process grumbled unhappily, and Eren figured he should probably meet Shadis outside the cabin going forward, instead, before </span>
  <em>
    <span>that </span>
  </em>
  <span>turned into a thing. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He was instructed to clean all bathrooms, ever single table in the mess hall, the front porches of the dorm cabins, and any other random thing Shadis thought up to yell out while he worked. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Shadis left him to work for a few minutes, at first, and then came back, only to immediately take an issue. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>"What are you doing, cadet?" </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Eren looked down at the rag he'd been handed, and the bucket of cleaning solution he'd mixed. Unable to see a problem with either, he looked up, replying, "...Cleaning."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"What is that?" Shadis demanded, pointing to the cleaning solution. "What are you putting on these tables? You should be using </span>
  <em>
    <span>water."</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>"It's….antibacterial wash," Eren said, slowly, uncomprehending. "Water, dish soap, vinegar, lemon. Just wetting the table won't make them sage enough to eat off of."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Shadis narrowed his eyes at Eren. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>"...Yaeger, right?" He asked. "That's right. Your father was a pretty famous doctor." He looked down into the bucket, and ordered, "Don't waste our kitchen supplies on scrubbing tables. But, as long as you leave plenty for meal prep, keep cleaning this way.  May as well use your smartass self for something you can do properly, while we wait to make you into titan food."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Eren hated this man with an incredible passion. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Yes, sir."</span>
</p><p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p><p>
  <span>Shadis apparently had been expecting Eren to be completely incompetent, as he seemed incredibly surprised by Eren actually getting the camp cleaned up, and in a reasonable amount of time, finishing off his last bucket of cleaning solution around the same time his fellow cadets were filtering into the mess hall for breakfast. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The entirety of his work was skeptically inspected, and, apparently passing muster, he was dismissed to eat breakfast. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He had a feeling he was only allowed this meal because he hadn't had one the night before, but Eren still really didn't intend to eat, just to find a way to stack extras on Mikasa's plate when Armin was distracted. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>That in mind, he felt for his tie to Mikasa, starting to follow it toward the mess hall. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He could feel Mikasa as easily as ever, and the process of tracking her down was so easy - it was confusing, because </span>
  <em>
    <span>something </span>
  </em>
  <span>had clearly happened to his tie with Grisha. When he reached for that tie, he felt only the vaugest sense of the man, and he could not get any real information on his distance or state of being. He got nothing from pulling it, either - it was as though he </span>
  <em>
    <span>had </span>
  </em>
  <span>suspended Grisha, and was simply carting his body around. He would </span>
  <em>
    <span>remember </span>
  </em>
  <span>that, though. He should have either had to actively do something himself, still have the ability to feel Grisha, or…</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Or, if Grisha was dead, </span>
  <em>
    <span>he </span>
  </em>
  <span>should be dead. That's a contract unfulfilled. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He decided he should mention it to Mikasa, for a moment, and then immediately changed his mind. No need to get her fussing over something that was one hundred percent Eren's own problem. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He </span>
  <em>
    <span>would </span>
  </em>
  <span>have to start feeding off someone other than her, though, as Mikasa's only truly substantial tie was to </span>
  <em>
    <span>him</span>
  </em>
  <span>, which left her accessible energy in almost a constant negative. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The second he stepped into the mess hall, he felt his tie to her go taut, her attention fixing on him. He looked in the direction he felt it pull, meeting her gaze across the room and starting toward her. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>She met him halfway. "Armin said you were punished."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"I cleaned," Eren told her, dismissively. "It wasn't hard."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"You didn't do anything to deserve-..."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"It was fairly open insubordination," Eren countered. "Come on, sit down, eat your food."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"You should grab a tray."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Eren glanced down at the food servings being offered. They did not look like they had the same appeal that Carla's had, making it worthwhile to eat for taste even if it did nothing for him. </span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>"Eren."</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>He sighed, and turned, marching off to the end of the hall to retrieve his own breakfast. He grabbed as few things as he could get away with, and returned to Mikasa's side, dropping down to sit beside her and Armin. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Careful," a boy to Armin's side warned. "Sasha's taken at least three loaves of bread."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Eren blinked, looking to the side, at the indicated 'Sasha.'</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Oh," he said, seeing her properly. "Potato girl."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Her face burned, and she gave him a sheepish smile. "I'm so sorry I got you in trouble!"</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"I tend to do that myself," Eren said. Remembering what the boy had told him, he picked up his bread, passing it across the table. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Her eyes grew wide. "I! I can-...?"</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Take it," Eren said. "I was going to pawn it off on Mikasa, anyway."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Eren," Armin scolded. "You didn't eat dinner yesterday."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"I'm fine," Eren said, thrusting the bread out once more, at which point Sasha happily snatched it up and started munching away at it. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Oh, yeah," the boy who'd warned him said. "I forgot, you guys are refugees, yeah? You're probably not used to eating very much."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sasha paused in mid bite, eyes going very wide. "Yernau?" She asked, muffled around a mouth of bread. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Eren, always happy to jump on an excuse, nodded. "I never really ate much before, either. Carla-...."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He paused. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Carla, his mother. He'd called her as such as he looked down at her body, crushed in their home - </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Where the </span>
  <em>
    <span>fuck </span>
  </em>
  <span>was Grisha? He needed to get out there, get working on his deal. Part of him wished he'd told Carla the truth, talked her into some deal, corrupted her - then, at least, he would be able to visit her soul when he was done with his contracts. As it was, she was tucked away in a place he'd never, ever reach. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"...It doesn't matter," the boy said, in a tone that implied he'd seen something cross Eren's face he'd rather leave untouched. "Sasha'll eat anything, though, if you ever need a human dumpster."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sasha swallowed her last bite of bread and shot him a look. "I'm not a dumpster, Connie!" She protested. "I just don't waste food! It's too good to waste!"</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"You'd eat a rotten potato if someone gave it to you."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"No, I wouldn't!" She protested, only to pause, hesitantly asking, "....How rotten?"</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Connie laughed, rather than answer, and Eren filed this information away. Mikasa wouldn't eat two meals every single mealtime, but he could definitely supplement Sasha's meals instead, if she had no protests against it. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>In the meantime, he dodged Armin's </span>
  <em>
    <span>looks </span>
  </em>
  <span>and picked up a spoon, blindly shoveling a bite of something into his mouth, unable to even guess what the taste was supposed to be. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Yeah, no. Unless he made his own food, he doubted he was going to eat during training. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>...Maybe he could work something into his new cleaning duty? </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He sat back, sighing internally. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He just wanted to kill the damn titans. Three years of playing human suddenly seemed so impossible. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He wasn't letting Mikasa or Armin jump into anything unprepared, though, so...for them, he would stick it out. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>It wasn't like </span>
  <em>
    <span>he </span>
  </em>
  <span>was going to need the training, anyway. </span>
</p>
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